OUR LATEST ISSUE
Roisin Murphy
Roisin Murphy
She may have scored a major dance hit with "Sing It Back" with Moloko but don't dismiss Roisin Murphy as just another disco dolly. With a style that s
"Apparently, I was a witch and I need to forgive the male archetype"
Your first album was very leftfield but Overpowered - despite the fashions - is much more commercial, isn't it?
I think when I listen back to that first album there's quite a lot of things that sound like pop music to me. I didn't set out to make an avant-garde record. I just started to make a record with Matthew Herbert and we had fun. It wasn't like we were sitting around thinking, "Alright, now we've got to be really arty", although some of the things we used to make music were a bit out there. The day before we went into the studio for the first time, he rang and he was like, "Bring an object into the studio", but I didn't really know what he meant so I brought a big box of cuttings which I use to help me write... So I showed it to Matthew and said, "This is very interesting..." and he said, "Yeah, go and bang it on the microphone, rip it up and make sound from it". Then he made a synth sound from it.
There was a controversy about the painting on that cover of that first album...
I love that album cover. I love that painting. What's the controversy? That I'm not airbrushed? It's a painting!
Who did you work with on this album?
I wrote like thirty songs that were all good because I worked with all good people. Actually, sorting out the best ones is quite a tricky thing.
You've got a very particular look: what's the craziest outfit you've ever worn?
The one on the first single cover was pretty mad. I'm walking down Woolwich High Street wearing a Viktor & Rolf dress that juts out about three foot above my head. I almost died! It was like a sail, so I nearly got blown over and if I'd fallen over I would have broken every bone in my body because it was like like this scaffolding attached to me and I was on these clogs which had big nails to make them into high heels. But I do just look like I'm walking down the street with a Happy Shopper bag.
Whatever happened to good dance music?
I have this half-baked theory that... well, this album is influenced by late 70s/early 80s and late 80s/early 90s stuff so I do have this strange idea that the middle of the decade is never good for music. I think either end seems to be good.
OK, some mad ones. Who were you in a previous life?
Apparently, I was a witch. Some red-feather told me. he's a guy who regresses you. He told me I was a white witch. He channeled Saint Germain to talk to me. Not the house producer, the real guy! He said that he had been with me before they burnt me at the stake and that I need to forgive the male archetype... Let everyone know that I don't take it 100% seriously.
And what's your favourite baked potato filling?
Baked beans.
The single 'You Know Me Better' is out on 31st March. The album Overpowered is out now.
